Berrien Springs grad earns high school diploma halfway through WMU A big head start

June 16, 2007|MARY KATE MALONE Tribune Staff Writer

BERRIEN SPRINGS -- You've gotta give him credit. Jason Engelkemier earned 63 college credit hours before graduating from Berrien Springs High School last week and, though he's only 19, he will enroll at Western Michigan University this fall as a junior. "He's a rare one," said Berrien Springs school counselor Linda Mangus, who directed Engelkemier as he collected his pile of college credits. "He's very mature, very ambitious, very goal-driven and willing to discipline himself and make sacrifices to meet his goal." Engelkemier also is one of the first students in the state to receive the Michigan Promise scholarship, which provides up to $4,000 to high school graduates who have successfully completed two years of post-secondary education in Michigan. The award is new this year, and Engelkemier is one of the first to receive it because he's already earned enough credit hours to make him a junior. So how did he do it? "I did a lot of talking (with teachers and administrators at Berrien Springs)," he said. "I just proposed doing what I intended to do and they worked with it." When Engelkemier sets a goal, he commits himself to achieving it, he said. So after he took seven credit hours at Lake Michigan College his junior year in high school, he set his sights on completing two full years of college-level course work before graduation. "I don't know why I set two years." he recalled. "But I just set really high goals for myself .... I had set the goal and now I had to complete it." To do so, Engelkemier had to take 12 credits at LMC during the spring of his junior year, and nine more during the following summer. By then, there were no more classes at LMC that would transfer to his college of choice, Western Michigan University. "So I decided to drive down to Western Michigan to take classes," he said, adding that some days he would leave home at 6:30 a.m. and not return until 9 p.m. at night. His twice-weekly journey to WMU senior year meant he was only taking one or two classes at Berrien Springs. Engelkemier's ambitious academic pursuits left him little time for high school sports, clubs or other activities, he said. "Basically I was never even there so they would really never see me," he said of his classmates. During the fall of his senior year, he took 17 credit hours at WMU and in the spring he took 18 -- bringing him to a total of 63 college credit hours. Engelkemier graduated 7th in his class out of 117 students, he said. His cumulative GPA (including high school and college classes) was a 3.8. State Rep. Neil Nitz, R-Baroda, even came to his graduation to present the Michigan Promise scholarship to Engelkemier. "Someday we might be voting for him," Mangus said. "He's just that kind of kid." Engelkemier is on track to major in psychology and minor in sociology at WMU. While many of his peers are preparing for a major life transition into college, Engelkemier is unfazed. "I've already been in college for two years," he said. "I already transitioned quite awhile ago."Staff writer Mary Kate Malone: mmalone@sbtinfo.com (269) 687-7001